In: Van Rooij, Benjamin, Yunmei Wu, and Li Na. "Compliance Ethnography: What Gets Lost in Compliance Measurement." In Measuring Compliance: Assessing Corporate Crime and Misconduct Prevention, edited by Melissa Rorie and Benjamin Van Rooij. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2021 (in production)
Scholars and politicians often complain about how weak administrative law enforcement is in China. To better understand the challenges in law enforcement, as well as variation in actual practices and influences on such practices, the current paper analyzes Chinese pollution law enforcement data from the last two decades as well as in depth qualitative case studies of everyday enforcement practices. It finds that recently enforcement has become much more frequent and stricter. It finds that recent changes in national legislation, centralization reforms, increased citizen complaints, as well as enforcement campaigns all played a role in this. While this has helped strengthen enforcement, and maybe has played a part in recent pollution reductions, it has not fundamentally overcome structural enforcement impediments. The increased authority, independence, and pressure on environmental authorities for stricter enforcement, does not seem to be matched with sufficient investment in resource capacity and support for regular procedural enforcement practices. In addition, the ad-hoc pressure on enforcement has undermined regular legal procedure and stimulated greater socio-economic inequality. These findings about pollution enforcement force us to question simplistic static generalizations of administrative law enforcement and instead develop both large-scale studies that map change over time as well as in-depth case studies that provide a thorough picture of actual practices on the ground. Moreover, the paper concludes that a true picture of administrative enforcement must move beyond looking at the enforcement itself, to looking at how it arrives at the regulated companies and shapes their compliance.
AbstractThis article examines the impact that Ontario's Greenbelt legislation, a farmland preservation policy implemented in 2005 that permanently protects over 1.8 million acres of land from non‐agricultural development, has on farmers' exit and investment decisions. There are conflicting hypotheses regarding the impacts that farmland preservation could have on farmers' management decisions with respect to investment or disinvestment, and there is a lack of evidence in the literature regarding the nature of such impacts. To address this issue, this article uses a farm‐level panel data set to estimate the impacts of the Greenbelt policy on farm exit and on farm investment. The Greenbelt policy is found to have influenced both farm exit and farm investment decisions, with the impact varying depending on location within the Greenbelt. In particular, the results indicate evidence of a negative impact on farm investment, which is contrary to one of the objectives of the Greenbelt policy.
In: Li , N , Lin , W H & Wang , X 2012 , ' From rural poverty to urban deprivation? The plight of Chinese rural-urban migrants through the lens of Last Train Home ' East Asia , vol 29 , no. 2 , pp. 173-186 . DOI:10.1007/s12140-012-9175-2
In: Li, Na., Wei-Hsin, Lin and Xiaobing, Wang, From Rural Poverty to Urban Deprivation? The Plight of Chinese Rural-Urban Migrants through the Lens of 'Last Train Home', East Asia: An International Quarterly. 29 (2): pp.173-186, February 2012
AbstractEnterprise digital transformation (EDT) is becoming an essential strategy for business growth owing to the rapid iterative invention of digital technologies. Based on imprinting theory, we examined the effects of chief executive officers' (CEOs') digital technology backgrounds (DTBs) on EDT using data on Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2020. We found that (1) CEOs with digital technology‐related learning or career experience can drive EDT to a higher degree. (2) Research and development (R&D) investment and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are significant variables that influence the digital transformation of CEOs' digital technology. Both partially mediate CEOs' DTBs, driving digital transformation by increasing R&D investment and enhancing CSR. (3) CEOs' DTBs significantly promote digital transformation in state‐owned, high‐tech, and digital economy enterprises. By promoting digital transformation, CEOs' DTBs substantially increased their sustainable development.
AbstractThis study presents the findings of Let's Be Friends (Shaanxi), Trial 2 (LBF2), which is a second test of the school‐based intervention. Let's Be Friends (LBF) is designed to promote social competence and prevent maladaptive behaviour by strengthening the social information processing (SIP) skills of third‐grade children in rural China. A cluster‐matched design with random sampling was used in LBF2. Two rural counties in China were selected by purposive sampling (one is the treatment site, and another is the control site). Nine treatment schools (n = 343) were selected by random sampling. Fifteen control schools (n = 369) were selected by using vector‐norm matching. All children of the third grade, ages 8–10, in the treatment schools received 12 sessions of LBF2 intervention. Skill‐level Activity Scale and the Carolina Child Checklist–Teacher Form were employed to measure children's SIP skills and aggressive behaviour. LBF2 promoted the improvement of study children's SIP skills and effectively improved children's authority acceptance. LBF has the potential to be applied in China.
Using data from five cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey spanning 2005 to 2014, we assessed changes in household food insecurity in Ontario after the 2007 introduction of the Ontario Child Benefit and the 2008 implementation of the province's poverty reduction strategy. Although the provincial prevalence of food insecurity remained relatively stable, food insecurity declined significantly among families who received the Ontario Child Benefit in 2009–2010 and 2011–2012 compared with 2005. Our findings suggest that household food insecurity can be reduced by modest income supplements, but more deliberate intervention is required to have a substantial, sustained impact on food insecurity.
In: Ecotoxicology and environmental safety: EES ; official journal of the International Society of Ecotoxicology and Environmental safety, Band 125, S. 121-127